Which Best Mega Man Battle Network Games Stand Out?

Now that Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection is here, there are a lot of games to go through. Capcom likes to say it’s 10, but I mean basically you have six with 3, 4, 5, and 6 offering variants with some changes between the two. It might have you wondering which Mega Man Battle Network game might be the best choice to start with or perhaps play first if you’re not going to go through them in order. Well, here are some possible suggestions to consider.

Best Mega Man Battle Network Games for Just Getting Started: 1 or 4

It’s best to think of the six games as sort of covering different arcs, even though they are all connected and it’s one big storyline. The ideal place to start is with Mega Man Battle Network. It introduces Lan and MegaMan.EXE. You get a proper look at life with NetNavis. Dr. Wily is pretty prominent, and you see a lot of familiar characters like Roll and Gutsman often. WWW also consistently shows up as an antagonist.

However, Mega Man Battle Network 4 is also a great place to start. Especially if you only get Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection Vol. 2. It brings up the group Nebula, introduces Dark Chips, taps into the Emotion Window to increase MegaMan.EXE’s power, and lets you gain NetNavi powers with DoubleSoul. It can be the longest entry in the series if you do play through it multiple times to see everything. But if you just want to go through once to prepare and get a feel for everything coming in 5 and 6, it works!

Best Mega Man Battle Network Game in the Series: 3

Mega Man Battle Network 3 feels like everything came together perfectly. The “two versions” element works, because there are a lot of parts that make it both look and feel different. Blue has Shadow Style, which lets you become temporarily invisible, while White has a Ground Style for cracking panels. Both are handy tactical options! There are exclusive Giga Chips. (FolderBack is amazing in Blue!) You have different bosses, like BowlMan in Blue and MistMan in White. You also can fight Punk in Blue too.

It also feels like it gets really strong tactically, with noticeable improvements over the first two games. (This isn’t to say entries 4-6 are bad, but it feels really special when 3 stands out the way that it does.) I’m a huge fan of the Folder system, what with you needing to really pick the one Mega Chip and one Giga Chip most critical to your strategy for a Folder. It also feels like you can’t spam Chips as you would in the past, as only four of each could be added to your deck. Style Changes are handled well, and I love their abilities. I’m a big fan of the bosses that come up this time as well, with BeastMan, PlantMan, MistMan, and the final ones being really enjoyable.

Also, the story is really solid. It offers a lot of explanations for what happened in the first two games with both WWW and Gospel, which is great. Plus if you decide for some reason that hey, this is the last entry I’ll ever play, it has a fantastic ending and some great post-game bosses.

Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection is available on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PC.